After a loss in Chicago, Bjarke Ingel’s North American tour continues unimpeded as the design for his latest project, a set of twisting towers in Coconut Grove, Miami, was revealed at an invitation-only party in late March. Called the Grove at Grand Bay, the set of 20-story towers will contain a combined 96 luxury residences, 59 units in one tower and 37 in the other, on the three-acre site currently occupied by the once-hip-but-now-shuttered Grand Bay Hotel that once entertained the likes of Michael Jackson, Prince, and Pavarotti. Tenants of the new towers, however, are likely to be just as rich and possibly as famous.
Echoing Ingels’ trend toward torquing form and away from the mountains that made him famous, the old Grand Bay Hotel’s terraced, mountain-like form will give way to the twisting twins. Developer Terra Group purchased the former hotel, which has been boarded up for four years, for $24 million.
Like his projects in New York and Vancouver, the Grove at Grand Bay will offer high-design living, but developers in Miami are hoping to raise the bar with a new level of luxe. According to the Rex Hamilton Corporations’s web site on the project, residents will enter the building’s 25-foot-tall lobby, already elevated 18 feet above sea level for better views and flood protection. Terraces up to 12-feet deep will offer outdoor kitchens and each tower will be topped with a swimming pool
Landscape architect Raymond Jungles and Coral Gables-based Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates will join BIG on the project. While there’s no timeline for demolition and construction, developers told the Miami Herald they hope to begin construction within the coming year.